Dr. Veronica E. Velarde Tiller shares insights from her extensive work and experience, in this episode with co-hosts Dr. Farina King and Eva Bighorse, recognizing ways that Native Nations thrive. Tiller is a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation. She earned a Ph.D. in American History with a focus on Native American history at the University of New Mexico. She retired after over 40 years as the CEO of Tiller Research, Inc. in Albuquerque. Her life’s work in promoting Native American history from Native perspectives has reached a national and international audience through her teaching of Native histories in college, development of educational curriculum, publications, lectures (including at the United Nations), preservation of her Native language with the re-translation of the 1911 Jicarilla Apache Texts under a National Science Foundation grant, and consultation with private and governmental business sectors. She has consulted for films such as A Thousand Voices (2014) on Native Women in New Mexico. She is best known for The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History 1846-1970 (1983) and the award-winning Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country: Economic Profiles of American Indian Reservations (three editions), the authoritative reference guide to 567 modern-day Native Nations. In 2017, the City of Albuquerque honored Tiller on the Wall of Fame for Tiller’s Guide. Harvard University’s American Indian Economic Development Google MAP database uses the economic data that Tiller compiled.
Additional resources:
Veronica E. Tiller, “History, Indians, and Business: An Apache Story,” in "Career Paths," Perspectives on History 55, no. 6 (September, 2017): 47-48.
Vigil, Eden, Asst. Editor, “Interview with Veronica E. Velarde Tiller," in Southwest Talks: in the New Mexico Historical Review Interview Series, NMHR 95, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 95-102.
Special Edition of "Les Apaches. Geronimo le rebelle," Et apres, Veronica E. Tiller, “Moi Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, historienne apache” in Historia Grand Angle no. 65 (September-November 2022): 112-117 (magazine in Paris, France).
Natalie Rogers, "Saving a language, preserving a culture: New translations of Jicarilla Apache texts," UNM Newsroom, November 30, 2020.
Tiller's Guide to Indian Country: Economic Profiles of American Indian Reservations, Third Edition, edited by Veronica E. Velarde Tiller with preface by LaDonna Harris.
https://www.unmpress.com/author/veronica-e-velarde-tiller/